


Tiny Fists

by iwriteshipsnotsailthem



Series: Dad Lance & Tattoo Artist Keith [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Homophobic Language, M/M, Parent Keith (Voltron), Parent Lance (Voltron), Tattoo Artist Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwriteshipsnotsailthem/pseuds/iwriteshipsnotsailthem
Summary: The day had been ordinary until Lance got a call from Vivian's school principal explaining that he had to come in immediately because Vivian had gotten in a fight.His eight year old daughter had gotten into a goddamn brawl with a 5th grade boy.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Dad Lance & Tattoo Artist Keith [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570900
Comments: 121
Kudos: 783





	Tiny Fists

**Author's Note:**

> welcome back friends ♥

The day had been ordinary until Lance got a call from Vivian's school principal explaining that he had to come in immediately because Vivian had gotten in a fight.

His eight year old daughter had gotten into a goddamn brawl with a 5th grade boy.

Keith was going to have a fit when he eventually saw the message Lance had sent him in a flurry as he sped down the school corridors.

Luckily, he remembered the direction of the school office from the tour day back when Vivi first started school. Sending her off with a backpack too big, looking like it was going to topple her over any second felt so far away.

Lance swung the door open to the Principal's office and assessed the situation. His daughter was sitting on a chair, the sweetness of her signature 'half up, half down' pigtails contrasting to the ice pack on her knuckles.

She wasn't the only one with an ice pack. An older boy, presumably the 5th Grader sniffled, clutching ice to his cheek. Next to him were two adults that he guessed were his parents by the filthy looks they gave him as he walked inside.

"Mr. McClain?" A woman with graying hair pulled back tightly that he recognised the Principal, Mrs Paula. She smiled kindly, standing up from her desk and extending her hand to him.

"Yeah, Lance," he said, considering both his and Keith's name were listed under McClain. He instantly shook her hand before sitting down on the seat next to his daughter who avoided eye contact.

“Now, as you're all aware, both your children participated in a fight at Lunch today-"

"May I cut in?" The mother of the other child said, pausing until Mrs Paula nodded. "My son didn't participate in the fight. He was _hit_ , but did not once hit her back. My son doesn't hit girls."

Mrs Paula nodded while Lance caught the urge to roll his eyes. This woman was going to be a difficult one.

“Well, yes. It’s true that Cole didn’t hit Vivian,” _thank god, because Keith would riot_ , “-but we have come here to discuss why that could’ve happened and what led up to this incident and how we can avoid it in the future.” Her eyes started in between the two children. “I was hoping to get both of their sides of the story. Cole?”

Cole sniffled. “Me and Jackson were talking to Mikey. Vivian got mad and hit me.”

“Is that it?” She asked. The young, blonde boy glanced towards his parents before looking back to the principal and nodded.

“See,” Cole’s mother huffed. “My son said nothing happened so obviously he didn’t do anything wrong.”

Lance’s jaw clenched. There was no way nothing else didn’t happen in that exchange. His kid was a little firecracker, sure. But for the most part she was sweet and caring and definitely wasn’t the type to just attack another child. She was more of a peace advocator than anything. If Keith and Lance ever bickered she would always give them some wise words about getting along that was definitely repeated from a cartoon.

“Okay then,” Mrs Paula said slowly. She sounded a little drained, like she knew there was going to be more hassle from this. “Vivian,” she said in a gentle voice looking down at her with a soft smile. “Could you please explain to me why you hit Cole?”

Vivian had stayed silent for this whole time since Lance had arrived. Her little mouth twitched and her eyes looked up towards him, like a silent prayer for help.

“It’s okay, you can say,” Lance prompted.

She looked down at her hands on her lap before looking back to Mrs Paula.

“Cole and Jackson were being mean to Mikey,” she whispered out, voice little croaky from lack of confidence and maybe a little fear at the situation. She had never been in this kind of trouble before.

“We were just playing with him!” Cole shouted out. “We weren’t being mean to him!”

“Yes you were, you’re always mean to Mikey,” she grumbled, crossing her arms and looking down at her shoes.

Mrs Paula nodded slowly, obviously taking in all the information. “Vivian, would you say Mikey likes the way that Cole and Jackson play with him?”

Vivian shook her head.

“Do you think that they bully Mikey?”

She hesitated before nodding.

“I can’t _believe_ this,” Cole’s mother exasperated. “My child has a bruised face and now you’re accusing _him_ of being a bully? This is ridiculous! She punched my son in the face, wouldn’t that make _her_ the bully?”

It’s at this moment that Lance was very, very glad that Keith was not here in this room because he would not hesitate to throw hands with this woman.

“We are trying to figure out the reason why my daughter hit your son, aren’t we?” Lance asked leaning forward so he could see the woman over the top of his daughter and her son. “There’s no need to get so defensive.”

“I _will_ get defensive if somebody accuses my son of doing something he would never do!”

“Why don’t we hear what Vivian has to say about what Cole and Jackson are doing?” Mrs Paula suggested.

All the eyes in the room went to Vivian who tensed up at the attention.

“T-they call him names and sometimes they shove him.”

“You said they were saying mean things to Mikey, what were those mean things?”

This was where Vivian’s body seized up, seemingly frozen in place. She stayed quiet for a few moments before looking at Lance. There was a somewhat guilty expression in her eyes that he usually saw if she did something bad, like draw on the walls or something.

“Mean things.”

“Like what?” Mrs Paula asked, leaning in a little closer. Vivian glanced back to Lance. He noticed this and smiled. “It’s okay Vivian, you won’t get in trouble for saying it.”

“I…” She hesitated. “I _really_ don’t want to say it.”

“Why not sweetie?” Lance asked, genuinely confused. Usually, if Pidge gave her the opportunity to swear or say a bad word then she would take it with a grin.

She stayed quiet for a little longer and dropped her eyes away from his.

“Obviously she’s lying,” the mother whispered to her husband and never in Lance’s life has he wanted to smack down someone so much before.

_Huh, maybe she did get it from the McClain side..._

“Why don’t you want to say it?” Mrs Paula asked, leaning back on her desk chair and giving the little girl a curious look.

“I don’t want to hurt my papa’s feelings,” she whispered out with a sniffle.

Now Lance was just confused. Why would whatever some stupid boys say hurt his feelings?

He got off his chair and then down to be at his daughter’s eye level. “You won’t hurt my feelings Vivi. All you need to tell Mrs Paula what Cole and Jackson were saying, okay?”

She nodded with a sniffle and Lance gave her an encouraging smile as he sat back down in his chair.

Vivian took a deep breath. “They were calling him the f word… not the one that rhymes with duck.”

For a second Lance had no idea what the hell she meant but then it hit him. “Faggot?” He asked quietly, sighing as she nodded.

_Ah_ , that made sense. No wonder.

It still didn’t stop his stomach from dropping. Not for his own sake though, just for fact his daughter got so hurt by it as well.

It wasn’t often, but there had been a couple of times when out as a family some people would have some nasty things to say. Gross, awful things that had obviously stuck with his child.

Lance leaned back on his chair and looked at the principal. She knew he was married to a man. She _knew_. He raised an eyebrow at her, a sort of daring move, like he was challenging her.

_Go on, tell the little girl with two dads not to stick up for some kid getting bullied with homophobic slurs. I dare you._

Mrs Paula sighed but immediately gave Vivian a small smile. “Thank you for sharing Vivian.” Her eyes moved back to the boy, who suddenly looked on the verge of tears. “Have you ever called Mikey that word Cole?” She asked the little boy who now had his arms crossed defensively over his chest.

“No,” he grumbled. His body language said it all; eyes on his lap and an angry pout on his face.

Mrs Paula didn't look convinced. “Are you sure about that Cole? I will be asking Mikey himself.”

Lance had seen enough guilty expressions of his own daughter‘s face to know when another child looked guilty as all hell.

Cole turned to his parents; a plea for help.

“This is ridiculous! Are we not going to discuss the fact that she punched him?”

“Of course we are, even if what she says is true, she needs to learn that hitting is still not an acceptable response. I’m sure that Lance agrees with me,” Mrs Paula said looking at him.

“Of course. It doesn’t matter what anyone said, no response was worth hitting another person,” he said with a pointed look towards his daughter who shrunk into her shoulders.

Although he was proud of her first sticking up for another kid, there was no way in hell he was going to just let Vivian get away with hitting someone. It was completely not okay and definitely not what he had taught her.

“Look,” Cole’s assumed father spoke up for the first time in the conversation since Lance entered the room. “Boys will be boys, they pester each other, knock each other around and get their hands dirty. They say stuff, toughens them up.”

Oh _god_ was Lance even more glad that Keith wasn’t here. There was no way he wouldn’t snap at hearing that. ‘ _Boys will be boys’_ his ass.

“An insult is still an insult, Mr Jenkins,” the principal reminded the man. “And knowing it’s a rude word and using it against another person is still hurtful, no insult should be used. Nor the excuse of ‘boys being boys’. Derogatory terms are beyond that.”

_Yes, fuck ‘em up Mrs Paula!_

Mr and Mrs Jenkins stayed quiet.

“Well, we aren’t going to answer on this today until we speak to Mikey and his parents. But for now, Vivian,” the woman looked to his daughter. “I think this is the time where you need to apologise for hitting Cole.”

Vivian’s nose twitched in reluctance of the idea but she stood up and turned to Cole.

“I’m sorry for hitting you for being an ignorant–” Lance quickly covered her move, knowing the exact words that were about to leave her lips because it was the same thing Keith always said.

Lance forced a smile and a laugh as he removed his hand from his daughter’s mouth. “Well isn’t that just nice? Apologies and forgiveness!” He stood up and looked to Mrs Paula. “Are we done here?”

“You all may go. I hope you both have learned something today,” she said looking at the two children who replied with a murmured ‘yes’.

Lance hurried her out of the room and exhaled as they walked into the empty school hallway since all the other children had gone home after the final bell.

The only other person in the hallway was a figure moving fast in their direction. It was easy for Lance to notice that it was his husband, dressed in jeans and a short sleeved shirt that showed his ink.

He jogged over, quick and eager to reach them, skidding to a halt in front of Vivian and instantly lowering himself to her level, eyes scanning up and down on her to assess the damage. The concern on his face made Lance’s heart flutter fondly.

“Are you alright?” Before she could answer he was looking up at Lance. “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine,” he said with a fond roll of his eyes. “She was the one throwing fists.”

Keith’s eyes widened comically as he looked back to their daughter. His reaction was enough indication of how out of character her actions were. “ _What?”_

“I’ll explain in the car. We have to go home and decide which toys to take away from _someone_ for starting fights,” he said, arching a brow at Vivian who pouted.

Checking over his shoulder, he wasn’t surprised to see the Jenkins family watching the three of them. The two adults looked a little dumbstruck, most likely from him and Keith’s close proximity or maybe at realisation to _why_ their son got a beat down for his choice in wording.

“Let’s go home,” Lance said before leading his little pack out of the school, eager to get out of the line of vision of judgement.

* * *

“So what have we learnt today?” Lance asked Vivian who sat on the couch, a small pout on her lips. After explaining to Keith the story, they had all sat down on the couch and spoken about what had happened.

“No punching people even if they deserve it.”

“Why?”

“Because hurting other people is wrong.”

“And what do we do instead?” Keith asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

Vivian sighed, probably very over being drilled. “We express with our words how we don’t like what they’re doing.”

Lance smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of his little girl’s head. “Good girl. Know we are proud of you for sticking up for someone, but we just have to approach it a different way next time. Okay?”

“Even if they’re being ignorant asswipes?” She asked, her angelic face deeply not suiting her word choice.

Keith tried to hide his snicker by turning his head away.

“Yes. And don’t use that word.”

“Dad says it all the time,” she grumbled at the unjust. "He also taught me to punch."

“Yeah, well your dad is going to get in trouble for it too.” Keith stopped immediately at the sight of Lance’s scowl. Vivian thought it was humorous though, a small giggle escaping her lips. “Alright sweetpea, now your first punishment is to go clean your room.”

“Okay papa,” she murmured, jumping to her feet and running, skidding to a halt and looking over her shoulder. “Can I have ice cream after?”

“The only ice you’ll be getting is for your knuckles,” Lance said, putting his hands on his hips.

His daughter frowned, but didn’t test him, running to her room down the end of the hall.

Lance turned to face his husband.

“You’re not actually mad at me, are you? I taught her to punch for _self defense-_ ”

“Shh!” Lance hissed, waiting for the sound of the door to click.

“What are you-”

“ _Shh!”_

They stood in silence in their living room for a few long moments, waiting. Keith looked confused, raising his brows at Lance hoping for elaboration.

The click of the door closing was the indication Lance needed to grin, covering his mouth as he began to laugh. Even more baffled than before, Keith just stared at him; stunned.

“Lance…?”

“That _kid,”_ he wheezed, still trying to keep his volume down. “She is _so_ amazing, that’s the funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my _life._ " He wiped his eyes as tears of laughter streamed down his face, caused by the effort to keep quiet. Snickering, he moved into Keith’s space to wrap his arms around his neck.

“You were waiting to laugh that _whole_ time?” Keith chuckled, tone disbelieving.

“Well I can’t _laugh_ about her punching someone _in the face_ in front of her!” He laughed, hiding his face into Keith’s neck to muffle the sound. “That’s bad parenting. It doesn’t stop it from being iconic as fuck though. Look at our baby, punching homophobes in the face with those tiny fists.”

“She didn’t have the best method, but her heart was in the right place,” Keith mused, arms going around his waist.

“Her heart is _always_ in the right place.” Moving back so he could see his husband’s face, giving him enough room to cup his jaw in his hand. “We’re raising such a cool little person, aren’t we?”

Keith smiled, leaning in close to kiss him softly. The shape of their lips matched with smiles.

“Yeah, we really are.”

**Author's Note:**

> was Keith 100% the one who taught lil vivi how to punch people (for self defense but she doesn't care)
> 
> this was fun to write and I do have more for this series and ideas are welcome!!!!!


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